A little cycle truck putters down a rural road in post-war Japan, carrying four-year-old Mei, her older sister Satsuki, and their father Professor Kusakabe to a new home in the country to be closer to the rural hospital where the girls' mother is recovering from an unspecified but potentially deadly disease. Along with the usual tribulations of moving — a spooky old house, new neighbors, fitting in at a new school — Mei encounters an odd little creature in the backyard. While pursuing it, she comes upon the den of a much larger forest spirit which she eventually calls "Totoro". At first, Mei is the only one who sees Totoro, but Satsuki soon meets him as well, and the girls have several fantastic encounters with Totoro, interwoven between subplots involving their family and (human) neighbors.

But the girls' seemingly idyllic rural existence is soon shattered when a health crisis forces their mother to cancel a much-anticipated visit home. Heartbroken, the two girls take out their fear and anger on each other, and Mei eventually sets out for the hospital alone, determined to deliver an ear of corn she believes will make her mother well. The remainder of the film revolves around Satsuki's increasingly desperate search for Mei; when all other options are exhausted, Satsuki appeals directly to Totoro for help — and he is more than delighted to be of assistance.

Totoro is one of Miyazaki's best known films, and it's considered a classic even by western critics (Roger Ebert called it "the best family film of all time", and Jonathan Ross says it's one of his favourite films). Totoro himself became Ghibli's mascot. However, Miyazaki does not gloss over some of the more frightening aspects of childhood: the girls are terrified of their mother dying, a common goat seems monstrous from little Mei's perspective, and the whole village's fright and anxiety when Mei goes missing is almost palpable. Even Totoro — with his huge grin, inscrutable expression, and manic eyes — can be a little scary; Satsuki refers to meeting him as both the funniest and the scariest day of her life.

This film provides examples of:

Adult Fear: Mei running away from home and getting lost in the climax is something any adult or older sibling can understand. Goes Up to Eleven when the villagers find a little girl's sandal in the pond and fear that she's drowned.

Triggered in the audience when Mei falls asleep on Totoro's stomach mere inches from his enormous maw, which is enough to make any parent cringe.

Adults Are Useless: Mostly averted, though it's only through Satsuki's actions that Mei is found.

All Trolls Are Different: Mei mistakes Totoro for a troll. In fact, "Totoro" is a mispronunciation of the Japanese word for troll, "Torōru".

Bug Buzz: During the night, when Mei and Satsuke helped "awaken" the acorns.

Chasing A Butterfly: Mei, the younger girl tends to do this. First she chases the soot gremlins all over the house; then she gets lost when she follows Chibi-Totoro into the woods. Although she enounters a monstrous creature (the titular Totoro), fortunately he is a Gentle Giant, so the danger part is averted.

Composite Character: Inverted with Mei and Satsuki, who started out in early drafts as a single girl with both their physical characteristics.note Apparently, this early concept leaked into the promo material (see Covers Always Lie).

Construction Is Awesome: The Forest God and the kids magically grow a few seeds into a massive World Tree. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have germinated abnormally fast.

Contagious Laughter: Once the father starts to laugh in the bath, the girls are able to join in. Interestingly for this trope, they start out by faking their laughter (to drive away the susuwatari), before they all finally start laughing for real.

Convenient Cranny: When chased by Mei, Chibi-Totoro hides underneath the house where the girl cannot reach it.

Covers Always Lie: The cover◊ for the 2010 American DVD is taken from concept art for an early draft, according to which the two siblings were still one Composite Character. So instead of Satsuki and Mei waiting in the rain, it has a girl who has Mei's head on Satsuki's body.

Cute but Cacophonic: Totoro. Note to those watching the movie on their computers or portable DVD players — please take your headphones off whenever it looks like he's going to roar. Your ears will thank you.

Cute Kitten: The short-film sequel, Mei and the Kittenbus, which plays exclusively at the Ghibli Museum.

Dead Hat Shot: Subverted. Someone finds what they think is one of Mei's shoes floating in a retention pond after the younger sister runs away from home. Everyone sighs a breath of relief when Satsuki sees it and doesn't recognize it.

Determinator: Satsuki literally runs for several kilometers in her search for Mei.

Good Parents: Professor Kusakabe is probably one of the nicest fathers in all of anime. And he's not just nice, he's effective as a parent - he never talks down to his daughters, even when they're talking about having seen Totoro, to the point that not even the audience can really tell whether he honestly believes them, or is just humoring them. And judging from the way Mei and Satsuki adore her, it's pretty clear their mother qualifies too.

Hand in the Hole: Short creepy moment, when Mei reaches into the crack in the wall behind which the dustbunnies disappeared.

Haunted House: Kanta believes this of the house the family moves into, not without reason.

Incurable Cough of Death: Averted, though the disease that Mei and Satsuki's mother suffers from is treated as this trope, she's never seen coughing and doesn't actually die. Considering it was based on Miyazaki's own life, and his mother had tuberculosis, coughing would certainly have been justified.

Invisible to Adults: Only children seem to be able to see the soot sprites and Totoros, though it's possible that this is simply because they don't want to be seen by adults. At film's end, it's hinted the girls are getting too old to see them. Unusual for this trope, the adults show no overt signs of disbelieving the children on this. Their father is the one who tells them of the soot spirits, and the village grandmother confirms she saw them when she was younger. This sets up the epilogue.

Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A major theme of the movie. For example, the huge tree that grows when the girls and Totoro are together, but is gone the next morning, despite the much smaller plants that grew around it, still being there.

"Satsuki" is the old Japanese term for the month of May, and "Mei" sounds like the English name for the month. Originally Mei was only going to be the only girl until Miyazaki realized that a four-year old wouldn't have the independence necessary to drive the story.

The three Totoros themselves, named for their sizes. The littlest one is called "Chibi Totoro" ("chibi" meaning "little"), the blue middle-sized one is "Chū Totoro" ("chū" meaning "middle"), and the biggest one is "Ō Totoro" ("ō" meaning "large").The big guy's name is sometimes rendered as "Ou Totoro", resulting in the alternate English translation "King Totoro".

Youkai: The Totoros are nature spirits centered around the great tree near the Kusakabes' home, which bears Shinto ropes. Also featured in the film are the 'Susuwatari'' (wandering soot), a fictitious Youkai created by Miyazaki; they also appear in Spirited Away.

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